Yasodai Selvakumaran
Rooty Hill High School
Big ideas:
Content/Concept- intertwine them together!
TeachMeet History- National Curriculum
May 1 2013 State Library
A big ideas approach from a beginning teacher
What is a ‘big idea’?
“an understanding that is transferable and has enduring
value beyond a specific topic.”
(Understanding by Design – Wiggins & McTighe)
An example from the same ‘big idea’ tweaked across 3 subject
programs:
( Year 10 History, Year 11 Aboriginal Studies, Year 11 Society and
Culture)
BIG IDEA:
Focus:
Dispossession
and
consequences
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs- analysis of needs and
Past
consequences- ‘What happens when?’ hypothetical task
mistreatment
( take away one need and ask students how this can
of
impact on another) Students are to write a personal
Indigenous
reflection applying Maslow’s theory to Colonisation
people
and Dispossession. (From both British and
allows us to
Aboriginal perspectives)
understand
Students apply their analysis of needs and
the Poverty
consequences to their own investigation of The
cycle today
Bringing Them Home report testimonies
Metalanguage:
Lesson strategy:
 Primary source investigation of visuals and texts about
period to mid 1900s
Similar themes between the
current syllabus and the new
7-10
Year 7: The Ancient Worlds
Year 8: The Ancient World to the Modern World
Contact and Colonisation and Medieval History
Year 9: The Making of the Modern World: Australia
to 1914, Australia in World War 1 and Australia in
World War 2
Year 10: The Modern World and Australia: Australia in
the Vietnam War Era, Changing Rights and Freedoms,
Popular Culture, The role of the United Nations
BIG IDEAS take us from the past to the present:
Democracy
Class struggle
Ideals
Civilisation
Diversity Commerce Citizenship
Inequality
Inclusive
Power
Justice
Colonisation
Multiculturalism
Paradigm Shifts
Human Rights
Dispossession
Industrialisation
And across transnational experiences for the interconnected
world we live in today
Capabilities
Content
Existing
expertise
Concepts
BIG IDEAS :
Cross
Curriculum
Priority Areas
can catch the various demands of the new curriculum and shelter
the challenge of implementation for successful learning
Some Resources?
-Textbooks: Oxford Big Ideas Text
books: available now in Australia
written under the Big Ideas framework
Reference: Teaching History With Big
Ideas: (2010) Cases of Ambitious
Teachers S. G. Grant, Jill M. Gradwell
Websites:
The Big History
Project:http://www.bighistoryproject.co
m/HomeLessons with captioned history video
resources
http://www.capthat.com.au/resources/
history
I would love to keep in touch a
continue the conversation
My Twitter handle i
: @yasodaiselva
Thank you 